nk497 writes: "The US Department of Justice has sued Apple and five publishers over ebook pricing, with a court filing revealing the detail behind its allegations. The publishers were already meeting to discuss what to do about Amazon lowering ebook prices when Apple stepped in. The group decided on what is now known as the Agency Model, which lets publishers set the price, not retailers, and ensures Apple's iBook store always had the lowest price — even if customers ended up paying more. Or, as Steve Jobs reportedly said: We’ll go to [an] Agency Model, where you set the price, and we get our 30%, and yes, the customer pays a little more, but that’s what you want anyway.""